A methodology for the flexible AGV routing

In the AGV routing a vehicle can select the shortest route on which no conflicts are anticipated. The procedure includes time constraint and the node/arc occupation times of vehicles in order to locate the conflicting paths. The slight differences among AGV routing algorithms exist in identifying the conflict regions encountered while reaching out to the destination node. In this paper, a novel approach to the use of the re-routing scheme is presented. It will be used to minimize the travel distance of vehicles in a regular vehicle routing process rather than to cope with emergency situations. The proposed algorithm provides existing active vehicles with the ability of changing their current paths for a new vehicle whenever the equal-distance paths exist, in on attempt to optimize the AGV transportation system. This ability is possible because of the flexibility of on AGV system controlled by a computer system.